Page 28 - Present Day Wildlife_Float

Bison are large bovines of the genus Bison in the Subfamily Bovinae, a member of the Family:
Bovidae. There are two extant species, the American bison (Bison bison), found in North America,
and the European bison (Bison bonasus), found in Europe, across Russia and into Asia. Bison are
very muscular with long shaggy haired coats. The European bison is slightly taller than its American
counterpart. However the American bison with its shorter legs has a more muscular appearance and
weighs in at around 400 to 1,270 kg, while the European is around 800 to 1,000 kg. An adult Ameri-
can bison can grow to around 2 metres in height
and around 3 metres in length, while the Euro-
pean with its longer legs can grow to around 2.5
metres in height and just over 2 metres in
length.

Although they may look similar, the Euro-
pean and the American bison have some physi-
cal and behavioural differences.

American bison.

The American Bison has some physical dif-
ferences from its European cousin. It has 15 rib
bones, one more than its counterpart; it has only
four lumbar vertebrae, while the European has
five, and its body is much hairier. Bison’s are
herbivores, and it spends most of its time graz-
ing on the grasses and sedges across the huge North American prairies. Consequently, its head has
taken to hang lower than the Europeans’ that holds its head more erect.

The name American bison in fact encapsulates two distinct species; the Plains bison and the
Wood bison. Wood bison are found across Canada’s British Columbia, and into the forest regions
of Alaska. They are herbivorous grazers feeding primarily on grasses, sedges, and forbs. It’s also larg-
er than the Plains bison, and the large hump on its back stems from the back of its head, while the
plains Bison’s hump stems from directly above its forelimbs.

European Bison

The European bison are less shaggy, with a leaner body shape. It can’t run as fast as the Amer-
ican bison. However, its life in the mountainous regions of Europe, has made it an adept jumper; out-
jumping, both in height and distance, its American counterpart. It’s also a herbivore, but is more of a
browser rather than a grazer. It spends a lot of time in forests, ripping the bark from trees and living
on the wide variety of vegetation growing on the forest floor. Its forest activities, over time, can often
create whole new ecosystems, encouraging new plant life, which in turn attract birds, insects and
small reptiles into the new cleared areas of the forest.

The recent history of the bison is one of slaughter and near ex-
tinction. The American bison during the 19th century saw the bison
population, once numbering millions, reduced to only a few hundred.
The European bison, although never as populous as the American bi-
son, fared no better, and apart from a few left in captivity; it was totally
wiped out in every country and region it inhabited. However, at the
end of the 19th and the beginning of the 20th century a few private in-
dividuals, in both America and Europe, decided to take action and pro-
tect the remaining animals in the hope of reintroducing them into are-
as where they had been wiped out. In America their efforts have paid
off and the bison can now be found, in healthier numbers, across many
states and are no longer thought to be an endangered species. The Eu-
ropean bison has been successfully introduced into many of the coun-
tries it once inhabited, even the UK where, debatably, it had never been
before. It is however, still listed as a species under threat.